In 1970, Bob Dylan released an album entitled “Self Portrait”. Previously the darling of the international rock press, Dylan was instantly pilloried for what was seen by many as an intentionally awful record. Greil Marcus famously wrote a four word review of the album – “What is this shit?” – and it caused others to […]
The Scottish Tories should leave the Conservative fold and start their own party
Leaders debates in Scotland are underway. Early noise on them is what you’d expect: Nicola Sturgeon dominant, Kezia trying hard to make Labour still sound relevant to Scots, but not quite making it; the Lib Dems and Greens struggling for relevance as well; Ruth Davidson looking like she should be the leader of the opposition […]
Bringing the NHS into the EU debate is silly – for both sides
For those hoping the run-in to the EU referendum on June 23rd would contain some arguments of intellectual substance, I think this latest piece of news puts that idea to bed for good: both sides of the EU debate have decided to bring up the NHS as a possible bargaining chip in the fight for […]
Why Boris Johnson could end up like Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy entered the 1980 Democratic primaries as the favourite to clinch the presidential nomination. Amongst Democrats, he held a 25-point advantage over the sitting president, Jimmy Carter (whose national approval ratings were in the low-20s to high-teens at the time) before the race began. Ted had long been the almost man of Democrat politics […]
The real problem for Corbyn is that he’s mostly Ed Miliband revisited – just even less competent and electorally appealing
Looking at current Labour economic policy is striking – and not in the way that many casual observers might expect. Let’s examine the essence of McDonnell’s “fiscal credibility lock” for instance: “day-to-day spending would not exceed government income although there would be scope for borrowing for capital investment” says the shadow chancellor. Okay, sorry to say this, but that […]
Yes, the ONS should tell the truth to the public about immigration – the whole truth
The UK Statistics Authority have written a letter to the Office for National Statistics calling for clarity on immigration numbers, citing a “speculation about the quality” of the migration figures the ONS is pumping out. Other than painting an amusing picture of statisticians having a punch up, this story adds another angle to the whole […]
Here’s the thing about Project Fear: it works
One thing we often hear these days from the commentariat is how “Project Fear” – trying to win a referendum by scaring the voting public into going the way you’d like them to – failed in Scotland and is failing in the EU referendum. Whether this strategy is actually deficient in regards to the current […]
Vote to leave the EU – if you want two more years of this at least
During the AV campaign, the No side had a whole wing of comms dedicated to doing down the idea of having the referendum in the first place. A “why are we having a vote on an electoral system that no one knows anything about when there are children dying in the streets?” sort of a […]
Could Chilcot really stymie the Labour leadership coup?
It’s kind of an open secret in Westminster these days that Labour MPs whom after this week we could slip into the categories labelled “hostile” and “core group negative” (and perhaps those 17 MPs who didn’t even get categorised at all by Corbyn’s crew) are serious about attempting to defenestrate Jeremy after the EU referendum. […]
Why are the only watchable rom-coms these days made for children?
My four year old daughter has developed a fascination with vampires of late. This is how I ended up sitting in front of “Hotel Transylvania”, a feature length cartoon about an overprotective father who happens to be Dracula and his attempts to keep his own daughter from falling in love with a human being. The […]